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Credit: NBC
A few years ago, my sister and I lived together. We binge-watched old shows like Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy and we kept up with newer network TV hits together. Cut ahead a few years, and we have our own places and even subscribe to dissimilar streaming services. The other day I tried to get her to watch Stumble, and I realized she didn’t have a way to do it. As we’re heading into cancelation season, this really worries me.
I’ve watched a lot of comedies during my time at CinemaBlend, and you hardly ever see a Season 1 sitcom with as perfect of a narrative arc as Stumble has had. It has everything: actually fun cheer routines, young, dumb love, a solid core couple (a la Friday Night Lights), an over-the-top German villain, and a stoplight that only changes like once an hour.
In, short, it’s very funny and I think it’s the breakthroough TV series of 2026. Only, I seem to be alone on an island about this because Stumble is the 21st highest-rated show… and not on TV. I’m talking on NBC. Doubtless it skews a bit younger and would appeal to the Gen X and millennial viewers who loved Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Rec and The Office before it, so airing on network TV likely doesn’t help its cause at this point, but still. The show is too good to be so low rated.
I have no idea how well the show does on streaming, which is a problem. A lot of TV cancelation blogs have the show in the bubble or “leaning” cancellation, which makes sense given the ratings.. Yet, I still find myself cheering this one on.
Credit: NBC, Danielle Mattias
Stumble has faced headwinds on NBC. The network literally stuck it on the 2026 TV schedule on Friday nights. It obviously hasn’t garnered great numbers there, and after the premiere has encouraged fewer than 2 million viewers to tune in weekly. The finale’s rating in the 18-49 demo this past week was only a .19. If you are unfamiliar with demo numbers, they’ve been going way down over the last 10 years, but a show like NCIS that is notable for bringing in an older audience will still garner about a .31 in the demo.
I blame how segmented entertainment has become. More than half the people I know don’t subscribe to cable anymore– and not even with a YouTube TV subscription or with Hulu+Live. That’s obviously a personal sample size, but by early 2025 46% of Americans were cord cutters. Then, even if you have a smattering of streaming services, what are the chances you have Peacock and can stumble upon Stumble? Entertainment is becoming too segmented, and even when it’s not sometimes the best shows are not being pushed by the streamers who own them.
It’s a shame, because it means there’s less space for the really great, niche content that used to garner enough eyeballs to stick around for while. No longer is word of mouth enough. We need 8,000 subscriptions to catch everything out there, and when people like my sister don’t have a Peacock subscription, stuff slips through the cracks. It’s such a far cry from what we expected as audiences during peak TV just a few short years ago, when shows on smaller networks like Spartacus (Starz) or even Arrow (The CW) could thrive.
Stumble follows in a long line of mockumentary-style content with lovable casts and a penchant for awkward moments on the Peacock network. The thing is, I watched the oddly-toned first season of Parks and Recs, and I remember it not really working; in fact, it famously makes lists of worst seasons of popular shows. Stumble does not stumble out of the gate in comparison. It gets its tone. Taran Killam and Jenn Lyons are the perfect anchors, and the sports story ensemble format works. In the case of Parks and Rec, the Amy Poehler starrer was given a second season, and went on to become one of the greatest comedies in my lifetime. I hope Stumble gets that chance, too.
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